Visitor numbers dip after attack

Feb. 20, 2013

Memorial in Tumon: Tourists last week pray in front of the memorial to the victims slain in the Feb. 12 killing spree in Tumon. Two women and a man, tourists from Japan, died and 11 other people were injured in the tragedy. Japan visitor arrivals dipped after the attack. / Pacific Daily News file photo

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Pacific Daily News

Two days after last week's attack that killed three Japanese guests in Guam's tourist district, visitor numbers from Japan dipped 12 percent.

It's unclear whether that decline continued this week. The Guam Visitors Bureau isn't expected to release a weekly tally of visitor arrivals until Friday, and a preliminary visitor arrival report obtained by the Pacific Daily News only showed arrivals through Feb. 14, two days after the tragedy. Guam saw 387 fewer Japanese tourists on Feb. 14, with 2,794 total arrivals, compared to the same day of the week one year earlier. Compared to the same date last year, Feb. 14 Japanese arrivals this year fell nearly 6 percent. On Feb. 13, Japanese arrivals still were up 3.8 percent compared to the same day of the week last year.

Guam resident Chad Ryan De Soto, 21, is being held on $3 million bail for allegedly plowing his car into tourists and then allegedly stabbing people just outside The Plaza shopping area, which is lined with luxury boutiques and other tourist attractions. His motive has not been made public.

Media coverage

The attack, which occurred in the late evening of Feb. 12, was covered as breaking news by Japan's major TV networks and publications beginning on Feb. 13.

Major Japanese news organizations sent reporters to Guam to cover the attack that killed 81-year-old grandmother Kazuko Uehara and her 28-year-old granddaughter Rie Sugiyama as the family prepared for a Valentine's Day wedding on Guam for Sugiyama's brother. Sugiyama died trying to protect her 8-month-old baby from the attack, court documents state. An older child of Sugiyama also was stabbed. Both children survived knife wounds and were flown back to Japan on Friday, in a flight carrying the remains of their mother and great-grandmother.

The third tourist casualty, 51-year-old Hitoshi Yokota, died of injuries after being hit by a car allegedly driven by De Soto.

Gov. Eddie Calvo, Delegate Madeleine Bordallo, Speaker Judith Won Pat and other Guam officials have sent words of condolences.

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The Guam Legislature will meet tomorrow with Japan Consul Genera Hisatsugu Shimizu to present a resolution to the people of Japan "for the loss of life and physical and emotional suffering resulting from an isolated and senseless criminal act in Guam's tourism capital."

The attack came as a shock to Japan, said veteran Tokyo journalist Yoko Inoue last week, because Guam is known as a safe destination for Japanese tourists.

GVB is analyzing the impact the attack may have had on Guam's tourism industry, according to a statement from the bureau yesterday.

"We are receiving communications at all levels of the industry in this regard and will report out, once we get a clear picture," the visitors bureau stated. "We are working with agents to ascertain if any cancellations have been made and what that will look like in terms of economic impact."

Rakuten Travel, an online travel agency in Japan, pulled Guam from its main web page as one of its featured destinations after the attack, but it was unclear if that was a response to the Feb. 12 incident.

"GVB is looking at its plans and adjusting to ensure we show sensitivity to the Feb. 12 incident," GVB stated. "We are moving more toward a public relations-based marketing strategy in the wake of the incident and are being advised by our experts in Japan."

The visitors bureau's advertising agency representatives in Japan are on island, advising, according to GVB, "on how best to move forward."